Salis!) Kootenai Community College
>iO, it
CHAR-KOOSTA
Newspaper of the Confederated Salish & Kootenai Tribes of the Flathead Indian Reservation
VOLUME 13 NUMBER 22
THE MONTH OF THE GEESE
Tribal Constitution to remain un-amended for now
The voter turn-out for the Feb. 23 secretarial election to amend the Tribal Constitution was so poor that the total of yes and no votes was academic.
The BIA, which was in charge of the balloting, announced Feb. 27 that "a total of 451 valid eligible votes were cast. . ."
The name Char-Koosta is derived from Chief Charlo's and Chief Koostatah's names. They were the Tribes' last traditional chiefs._
XBLi
pooler
I last twobas[
A total of 680 voters had to cast ballots in order for the election to be validated according to federal law. The Feb. 23 effort was 229 votes shy of the goal.
Blame for the defeat of the amendments' passage was laid on a perceived lack of information and apathy.
A relatively few number of Tribal members attended a series of six district meetings sponsored by the Tribal Council to explain the issues. Those
who did attend expressed confusion and distrust about what the amendments proposed to accomplish.
As this is written, the Tribal Council hadn't taken any action about what they propose to do in the way of any second attempt to gain approval of what were described as "housekeeping measures" designed to streamline and modernize the 50-year-old Tribal Constitution.
Here's how you voted:
Total
AMENDMENT A AME NDMENT B AME MDMENTC voters
DISTRICT For Against For Against For Against BY District
Arlee 36 50 43 43 43 42 86
Dixon 5 28 6 27 6 26 33
Elmo 19 22 22 19 20 21 41
Hot springs 6 40 10 36 12 33 47
Pablo 14 22 14 22 14 22 36
Poison 26 50 41 35 48 26 76
Ronan 26 45 29 42 29 42 71
St. Ignatius 27 34 30 30 30 30 61
TOTALS 1 159 291 195 254 202 242 451
toy apinienm «a
Tribal Law and Order may run out of money
The Tribes' law enforcement and juvenile technician programs may run out of money at the end of June, three months before the end of the fiscal year.
Tribal vice-chairman Jim Steele, Arlee, blames the situation on the BIA's Flathead Agency for failing to "push hard enough for more money" for the
previously mentioned programs plus social services.
The Tribes contracts the three programs from the Bureau under the Indian Self-Determination Act, a ten-year-old law that encourages tribes to take over certain Bureau duties and the accompanying budgets. Contract (Concludes on page two)